Beyond those sherds. ‘Aegean’ interaction and central Mediterranean societies in the Middle and Late Bronze age

The Bronze Age societies of southern Italy and the Aegean have been characterized as having a continuous and intense relationship for much of the second millennium bc. This is suggested by the import and copying of artefacts (primarily pottery, known under the umbrella name of ‘Aegean type pottery’); the way in which those artefacts, and their contents, were used; as well as the diffusion and transformation of social practices connected to all these materials. The coastal settlement of Roca located a few kilometres north of Otranto in Apulia represents the ideal vantage point to explore these dynamics because: (a) its occupation covers much of this chronological spectrum; (b) it has produced the largest amount of Aegean type pottery west of Greece.